Dejan Kovacevic, a lifelong Pittsburgher, is an award-winning sports columnist for Trib Total Media covering the Steelers, Penguins, Pirates, Pitt and, recently, his fourth Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He also appears on WPXI-TV's 'Subway Final Word’ and hosts a weekly show on TribLIVE Radio. For 2011, he was named one of the country's top four columnists by the AP Sports Editors. For 2012, he was named one of the country's top three columnists by the National Headliners. For 2013, he was named the state's top columnist by the Keystone Press Awards and top columnist in Western Pennsylvania by the Golden Quills.

I don’t know about any of you; and I’m not going into right and wrong or guilty or not guilty but I really wish that these glorified atheletes would take responsibility for their comments they make on twitter.

It absolutely disgusts me the way some of these guys talk on twitter. James Harrison is one guy I’m glad is no longer associated with the Steelers. All the legal trouble he has had and slapping women and never spent time behind bars wants to talk about the legal system.

Teams need a social media policy in their contracts. I have one for the company I work for.

USDA Works to Bench Baseball’s Unsplendid Splinters
A government lab has been studying broken bats at Major League Baseball games to try and improve safety for players and fans.By Billy House

Friday, July 12, 2013 | 2:25 p.m.
Final passage of a farm bill may be up in the air. But with Major League Baseball set to hold its All-Star game Tuesday, the U.S. Agriculture Department wants a little fan love for solving a big problem: the broken baseball bat epidemic.

The more-scientific name is “multiple-piece failure,” which the USDA says can pose a danger on the field and in the stands at baseball games. On Friday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the results of what is described as innovative research by the U.S. Forest Service, funded by MLB, to cut down on the dangers from splintering bats.

“The U.S. Forest Products Laboratory has once again demonstrated that we can improve uses for wood products across our nation in practical ways-making advancements that can improve quality of life and grow our economy,” Vilsack said in a statement.

The Agriculture Department reports that Forest Service researchers at the laboratory developed changes in manufacturing that have decreased the rate of shattered maple bats by more than 50 percent since 2008. That was the year the Safety and Health Advisory Committee of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association began seeing a rise in the number of shattered bats during their games.

Enter the Forest Products Laboratory, which formed a “wood grain trust” that has since made recommendations for new bat-making processes. As part of the research, wood experts at the lab examined every bat that was broken in games from July to September during the 2008 season, department officials said. They determined that a main cause of broken bats was the inconsistency of wood quality, primarily the manufacturing detail called “slope of grain,” which refers to the straightness of the wood grain along the length of a bat. Straighter grain lengthwise means less likelihood for breakage.

Recommendations made by the Forest Service have included manufacturing changes to bat geometry dimensions, wood density restrictions, and wood-drying procedures. The recommendations have all contributed to decreases in multiple-piece failures.

And this work is not over. The Forest Service research team has been watching video and recording details of every broken-bat event since 2009. And the team will continue monitoring video and studying broken bats collected during a couple of two-week periods this season.

Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said in a statement Friday that this work has “made the game safer for players as well as for fans.”

Do you think the league has figured out that the only pitch Cole can consistently throw for a strike is the fast ball and are sitting on it. It looks like he needs to go back down to better learn how to pitch. Pirates are 8 and 0 on games Gomez has started. Let him start for a while until Cole learns how to control his off speed pitches.

Oh man, Drew Dahling, I’m so sorry! I did mention Thursday I was going to the Mayhem festival all day Friday. And I popped in Friday morning on the way there to remind everyone. My cell phone battery doesn’t last too long. I guess I need a new one…but then I was pretty hammered and can’t be sure WHAT I would have typed in that condition! lol

Not sure if he has the confidence in his other pitches. One thing to remember, he is a young in’ and learning about the necessity of mixing up one’s pitches consistently is going to take time and consistent exposure.

Also, consider that his catcher is McKenry today and not Martin, which,as we have seen time and time again this season makes a tremendous difference. Missing “Cadillac” Martin today.

Cole’s “hit” should have been an E-1. Cole was basically walking to first- no hustle at all. Gee didn’t neec to hurry throw. He could have set up and thrown Cole out by 20 feet. Good thing got a real hit.

TC, you ever hear of Amon Amarth? A Viking Rock band…they were very good…but I gotta say, 5 Finger Death Punch stole the slow…Attika was good too…and ZOMBIE wrapped things up. The ol’ fart still has it lol

“All the legal trouble he has had and slapping women” That’s a bit of an exaggeration, I mean, if you actually look at the facts. Is there anything to support that beyond the one incident, which did involve an allegation of slapping a woman? Before anybody jumps and says, “you think he’s OK because of that?” No. But pretending like he had more of a legal record than he had isn’t fair, either. Maybe I’m missing something.

I will hear the honk as well as I live about 45 minutes away (which becomes a half hour when I have to drive the kids home to Altoona from Philipsburg). Good Luck, Plan. Just be yourself and you will bring home the W.

Gotta get my anger out. WHY let McKenry hit, when you pinch hit with Martin later? And then you pinch run for him anyways, insuring that turd McKenry would have to have continued playing if they’d tied it up?

Zimmerman is marked, profiled for the rest of his life. He may have put the bullet in Tray on in self defense, but the death clock started with the disintegration of the family unit and lack of stable male role models.

Drew, you are right. There needs to be peace, but that will not start until the breakdown of the family unit is addressed. IMHO.

I told you it was important to those involved, not ONLY to those involved. Please read carefully. If you feel you were involved, then obviously it is important to you. If others feel they were involved, then it was important to them also.

Your response was to say everyone was involved. That is a blatant falsehood. I was not involved. While I am saddened that a young man lost his life, and we may never know why, this case is not important to me. So to say it was important to everyone is not true.

My goodness. You’re parsing this word by word. If you don’t understand how important this case is and why it has been in the news for the past 18 months, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Sure looked to me that you implied that the case was important to only those involved and you didn’t like the game being interrupted. No, you didn’t use the word only. But if the entire conversation is followed, it sure looks that’s what you implied and you resented the game being interrupted.

Look, You think this is important. Others do also.
I dont think this is important. Others dont also.

There are a lot more important things in this country. Yes, this was a tragedy that the kid lost his life. But on my importance scale, it doesnt rank high. Why you need to state otherwise is pretty amazing.

I am not going to discuss this any further. This isnt the forum for it. Its just another case of you twisting peoples words, or putting words in their mouths.